Senate advances amped-up film incentives bill

TALLAHASSEE – Losing its luster as a location for filming, Florida is poised to green-light a substantially higher investment in the film and entertainment industry.

The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee on Monday passed a proposal to double the current $296 million the state has invested in tax credits to encourage television, film and digital productions within the state.

But it also requires counties like Orange and Miami-Dade which dominates the use of the tax-breaks to start kicking in 10 percent of their costs. And it could shake-up the ability of video game maker Electronic Arts, Inc., to dominate use of the incentives.

Besides privatizing the film office, the new re-design on the program would provide an additional $300 million in credits available through 2020 as other states like Georgia have upped their own recruitment efforts.

In order to get the bill moving, the measure also requires counties getting the most credits to kick in 10 percent cash contributions to the productions, which Senate Tourism Chair Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said was a mandate of the House.

“This bill has not moved through the House. This took some negotiating,” Detert said. As an example of the dire condition of the state's ability to compete, she referenced the delayed Ben Affleckmovie Live by Night, based on a novel set in Ybor City but which is now reportedly set to be filmed in Savannah, Georgia.

"We are dead in the water if we don't do something," Detert said.

The bill is designed to keep the credits from flying out the door quickly. Central Florida has captured the second-highest number of projects with 87, next to the 175 film, television and digital productions in the four-county South Florida region from Palm Beach and Broward to Monroe counties.

The measure would hand Florida’s film office over to the Orlando-based public-private entity Enterprise Florida to run, instead of leaving it in the Department of Economic Opportunity. And it would remove caps on how much of the credits could go to television shows like “The Glades” in Broward and “My Big Redneck Wedding” in Orlando.

At the behest of the industry, Sen.Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, won an amendment Monday preserving a bonus credit for “family friendly” movies and video games, which are defined as basically ‘G’ rated productions.

Most of the gaming production, including lucrative titles like “Call of Duty,” “Tiger WoodsPGA Tour,” and “Madden NFL 2013” were developed by EA at its studio in Maitland. EA, which has six lobbyists in the state Capitol this year that have been involved in writing the laws for the program, has won $37 million in credits over the last three years.

After creating the incentive program in 2010, Florida quickly exhausted the limits, and lawmakers declined to authorize more last year.

The office’s 2013 report indicated that 617 applications for credits had been filed over the last three years, with 297 projects selected before the credits ran out. Companies have made more than $1.5 billion in “qualified expenditures” while filming movies like “Magic Mike” and “Rock of Ages” along with other commercials, pilots, shows and digital features in the state.

But Sen.Gwen Margolis, D-Miami Beach, said the bill was “throwing away” the industry by requiring the local governments to chip in more cash.

But Detert said it was the House’s way, or no bill would pass at all.

“We currently have zero money in the program,” she told Margolis. “In our current system, the money is gone in an hour and a half. Most of it goes to your community.”